Mary Worshipers

I just found this and found it very defending.

Catholics worship Mary
No We don't
Yes you do
No We don't
Yes you do...etc.

That accusation can be easily flattened.

Catholics love Mary as a human being, as a mother. They feel quite free to "call her blessed" (Luke 1.48) with a "loud voice," (Luke 1.41), just as the Holy Spirit instructed (same passage).

For those who say Mary is dead and can't hear it, I have some words straight from the mouth of Jesus--"God is God of the Living, NOT of the Dead."

If Moses and Elijah put in an appearance on Mount Tabor and chatted with Jesus about his ministry (as Scripture records), then I'd highly posit that these men were "in the know" through God's power and not "dead." Moreover, if the martyrs beneath the altar in the book of Revelation (6:9-11) are appealing to God about things going on across the earth and asking God when he was going to take action, then I'd highly posit that they are NOT dead, either.

Really: to "worship" Mary would require that the *intellect* makes a firm decision to believe that Mary is Divine or that she created the world. Even the most uneducated catholic, I believe, does not make that kind of intellectual decision. Thus, Mary cannot be worshipped unless a person claims, with full intellect, that she is divine. Case closed.

Otherwise, Mary is loved and appreciated with the same sort of devotion one renders to one's own beloved mother, for example. Jesus doesn't get "jealous" or "green with envy" when we "love" our own mothers. There's no passage in Scripture that forbids us to "love" his own Mother, who was explicitly given to christians as their own mother, as well.

Protestants often make the grave mistake of treating Mary as if she were a mere "vessel" -- which is the same thing as saying she was a Petrie Dish that God used and threw away. They also often make the mistake of believing that God "woke-up" one day, yawned, decided it was time to "send his Son to earth," and then started looking, at random, for the proper "gal" to serve as a temporary incubator.

It is written that God knows each of us from the very moment of conception..."from the womb"...and that God has a plan and mission for each of us and prepares us according to our free will and cooperation with his grace.

God didn't just "pick" Mary out of some Galileean "line-up." She was destined, prepared, and graced to be the MOTHER of the Divine Word. Not a temporary "holding-tank." She gave human nature to the utter, omnipotent "DIVINE," according to her free will, faith, and cooperation--even to the point of possibly losing her own life, her husband, and her entire world.

Mary's faith was the 'contact point' for the greatest event that ever happened in this universe or any other, the greatest miracle in that thing we humans call "time"-- the Divine becomes part of matter, part of the material "existence." It gives me the shivers simply to think about the astonishing, mind-blowing reality of it. And Protestant literalists so often toss Mary aside the way they foolishly think that God "tossed her aside" after demanding temporary use of her reproductive organs.

She raised him. Educated him. Nursed him. Shared her own faith with him. LIVED with Jesus for 30 years as mother first in faith, and THEN in flesh. Her grace (given lavishly by God: Luke 1.28) and her free response to that saving grace, made it possible for all of humanity (and creation) to be redeemed by Jesus. It was the greatest "collaborative effort" that could ever possibly be effected or even imagined, through all ages, all times, all places, all possibilities.

Also, if Protestants want to bully Catholics for having sacred artwork, then they had best be prepared to throw their Bibles into the garbage cans. Why? Because every single letter, on every single page, in every single Bible in the world, is an IMAGE. It's created "material" of ink, made by human beings. *Every* letter. Do these letter-images convey truth and inspiration? Yes. Just as sacred art does. Protestants should also be ready to throw-out all of their family photo-albums and cherished "films." All are images.

But some Protestants have a valid point about excessive displays of "reverence" paid by Catholics to statues, pictures, et al. I would personally prefer to see sacred Christian art "considered" rather than "fussed-over." Statuary and icons may be cherished and revered as material things representing and conveying truths that inspire and teach us, or lift our minds to the Divine (just as the ink letter-IMAGES of scripture do), but I find no point in dressing statues in gowns or jewels and grovelling before them. Christian art can be properly revered without such excess.

We need to pray for vocations, but we need to inspire vocations, too--in proper candidates. This takes a community--from the family to the entire parish.

I just had to share it.

Cheers.

 

You all cited good counter arguments.

I've been doing some study on this.

The problem is these are just from books and letters.

They are not official teachings to be believed as doctrine by All Catholics. Anybody can write what they want to or what they believe.

Until the Vatican puts it out as an Official Doctrine then it all an opinion. Just like the writings of the "Early Fathers of the Reformation Era"

Nice try.

But these guy's defense against the accusation still stands and is strong and powerful.

I would worried more about those that engage in bibleidolatry.

How many people pray before a Bible.?

How many hold the Bible up in their hands while they pray.

Some people will after reading the Bible, bow their heads in the direction of the Bible and began praying.

Answer me this.

A. How many hours to do you spend praying to God?
B. How many hours do you spend reading the Bible?

If the answer to B is greater than the answer to A, then you're are guilty of BibleIdolatry.

Reading the Bible is not worshipping God.

You spend more time reading the Bible then you do worshipping God, then your guilty of breaking the First Commandment.

Matter of fact anything that you do that is pleasurable and that you do more than Worshinping God than you're guilty of Idolatry.

We are called to pray unceasingly.


Anyway back to the articles. None of those declare Mary as Divine. And niether is worshipping is implied.

I person that has left this world is either:

Dead: living out in torment in Hell.

or

Alive: basking in the Glory of God.

Bible says he is not the God of the Dead but of the Living. He is God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Lets break it down.

1. God is the god of the living.

2. God is the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob.

3. Based on statement 2, we can rightfully say that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are in Heaven.

4. Therefore we can conclule that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are ALIVE.

5. Mary is beyond a shadow of a doubt is in Heaven.

6. By evidence of Revelation (6:9-11) that those in heaven are very well are aware of everything that is going on earth.

7. There seems to be a gross misunderstanding of what is going on in heaven. Some say that once we get there, we will be doing nothing but standing before the throne before for all eternity before. If that is the case what is the purpose for all those mansions that Jesus is preparing for us? If we are in a continuous state of worship than how do these people in heaven in Revelations have time to worry about being avenged?

8. I am pretty sure that the prayers that Mary offers to Jesus on our behalf reach him with more effect than your own.

9. Why ask Mary to pray for us? For the same reason you would ask the person sitting next to you to pray for you.

10. Why ask the person sitting nest to you to pray for you. if praying directly to Jesus does it all. Why ask another to pray for you period.

11. I have no problem asking all those that are in heaven to pray for me. They have not need for sleep. They can pray day and night for us down here.

12. Remember we, once in heaven will share in Christ's ______________. I let you feel in the blank by doing some scripture search.

13. What is a Saint. Well if you look at the Greek word that is used and apply every definition than Saints are only those in Heaven.

H6918
קדשׁ קדושׁ
qâdôsh qâdôsh
kaw-doshe', kaw-doshe'
From H6942; sacred (ceremonially or morally); (as noun) God (by eminence), an angel, a saint, a sanctuary: - holy (One), saint.

G40
ἅγιος
hagios
hag'-ee-os
From ἅγος hagos (an awful thing) compare G53, [H2282]; sacred (physically pure, morally blameless or religious, ceremonially consecrated): - (most) holy (one, thing), saint.

THERE MAY ONLY BE A HANDFUL OF PEOPLE ON THIS EARTH THAT MY QUALIFY AS A SAINT: ONE WHO IS PHYSICALLY PURE AND MORALLY BLAMELESS AND MORALLY RELIGIOUS AND CEREMONIALLY CONSECRATED AND HOLY.

We are called to be saints, but we all fall short of Glory.

 

I would respond by telling them to think about it in another context. You meet a nice young man, Godly, well groomed, successful, intelligent and well spoken. You hear him give an impressive speech, and afterwards you say the following to him:

"Your mother must be a wonderful woman to have raised such a fine young man."

Who is the compliment directed at? Well...both, really, but mainly the young man. It's barely about the mother at all. What would you think about things if he said the following:

"No she's not! Don't say that! The only wonderful people are those who are nothing like her!"

Personally, I would think that is a very disrespectful thing to say about your mother, especially publicly, and particularly because that's liable to get you stoned under Levitical law. Since Jesus kept the Law perfectly, we know that's not what He meant.

What would it mean, according to Jesus' words, if Mary "heard the word of God and put it into practice" perfectly? Would she be more blessed? Perhaps "blessed amongst women"? Since there's no way to say great-er or great-est in Hebrew, the only way to say it is by circumlocution - by saying a man is "tall amongst men", you're saying that he's the tallest.

You might also respond by asking how Mary's soul magnifies the Lord for them (Luke 1:46)?